212 LEONHARD STEJNEGER : 



France, 1883, p. 34^) really belongs here, it may be safer to ex- 

 clude this species from the list of Kamtschatkan birds. 



B. brevirostris is exceedingly distinct, and should at no season, 

 nor in any stage, be confounded with B. marmoratus. The characters 

 given above will serve to identify the short-billed species in any 

 plumage; but, besides the characters there given, the two species 

 are easily distinguished both in their summer and winter plumages. 

 In summer B. brevirostris is gray above with dull bufi markings, 

 while B. marmoratus has the same parts black regularly barred with 

 rusty umber. In winter the two birds are more alike, but in B. brevi- 

 rostris the white of the under parts extends higher up on the sides 

 of the head, including the supercilia and the earcoverts, parts which 

 in B. marmoratus are dark, like the upper head. The winter plumage 

 of B. per d ix diflers probably from that of B. brevirostris in the same 

 manner as does B. marmoratus, but in summer the Upper surface of 

 the two former are much more alike, and in this case the characters 

 given in the Synopsis will decide most trenchently one way or the 

 other. 



I think there can be no doubt as to the pertinency of Vigors's 

 description : the general style of coloration ; the color of the under 

 wing-coverts and of the rectrices ; the extreme shortness of the bill, 

 and the dimensions generally ; all these characters apply to no other 

 bird of this or alliedgenera. That San Blas (Western coast of Mexico) 

 is given byVigors as the locality, where the specimen was obtained, 

 s of very little consequence in view of the fact, that in the same 

 paper (which is entitled « On some species of Birds from the North- 

 west Coast of American) he also described Coccothraustes jerreo-rostris, 

 which we now know originally came from the Bonin Islands, south 

 Japan. 



According to Dr. O. Finsch (Abhandl. Brem. Verein, III, 1872, 

 p. 79) there is a winter specimen of B. kittlit^n, from Kamtschatka, 

 in the Bremen Museum, but his description shows beyond a 

 shadow of doubt, that it does not belong to this species at all ; on 

 the contrary, it is a Synthliboramphus antiquus in winter-plumage, 



